“Getting Ready for Christmas: Pointing Beyond Ourselves”
Jeremiah 10:1-5
A few weeks ago, I was sitting in a restaurant with a friend when my attention went to a Christmas tree in the corner of the room.
It had different colored lights, ornaments of silver and gold and a bright red bow on top.
I said to my friend, “Imagine if someone from some other culture, who had no idea what a Christmas tree was saw this.
What would they think?
We see beauty in Christmas trees; what would they see?
Would they not think we were crazy?”
Then it occurred to me that Christmas trees, or something like them are nothing new.
For between five and six hundred years before Christ, the Prophet Jeremiah quoted the Lord describing something that certainly sounds similar to our modern-day Christmas tree.
“They cut a tree out of the forest…
…they adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with a hammer and nails so it won’t totter.”
Most of us love Christmas trees do we not?
And we could hardly imagine the Christmas season without them.
And for Christians, Christmas trees can help us in our remembrance of Christ’s birth.
Lots of ornaments are of angels and the baby Jesus in the manger.
Many Christmas trees have a star placed on top which reminds us of the star which guided the Magi to Christ.
Even the tree itself can remind us that Jesus died on a tree, and the green pine needles can remind us that death did not and does not have the final word!
So, Christmas trees can be pretty awesome as long as they point beyond themselves to Christ.
And that’s the way it is with most things, isn’t it?
I mean, think of the manger.
When you see a picture of a manger, what do you think of?
The baby Jesus, right?
And the Star in the East pointed beyond itself to where Jesus was.
A light shining in the darkness points to spiritual truths.
The Apostle Paul goes so far as to say that all of creation points to God’s invisible qualities, eternal power and divine nature.
When I was a Freshman in college I became friends with a kid my age named Tim.
One of the first things Tim asked me when we met was: “Do you believe Jesus Christ is God?”
I thought that a bit of a strange question, at the time.
Up to that point in my life, I had never met anyone my age who had asked me anything even resembling that question.
But, I had grown up going to church.
I was certainly a believer.
I had been surrounded, my entire life, by wonderful adults who lived very committed Christian lives.
I had just never met anyone my age who talked about Jesus much, if any.
When Tim asked me that question, I hesitated a bit.
I wasn’t sure exactly WHAT he was asking me, but since I considered myself a Christian my answer was “Yes.”
Tim never questioned my answer.
But very soon, having spent a good deal of time with Tim, I came to find that his understanding of what a Christian was and my understanding were very different.
Tim was living his faith.
He was unlike any other teenager I had ever met.
He didn’t gossip, he wasn’t trying to be cool.
He would talk to other people about his relationship with Jesus Christ.
He did the “right thing” as far as following the rules, without judging those who didn’t.
He had a joy and a peace about him that I had never seen in someone my age.
And for the first time in my life, it dawned on me that it was actually possible to be “my age” and live a Christian life at the same time.
The more time I spent with Tim, the more I wanted what he had.
God used his influence on me, his witness to bring me to a point where I finally and totally gave my life to Jesus.
I have never been the same person since.
By living his faith and not hiding it—Tim was pointing beyond himself—to Jesus Christ.
And that is what it’s all about isn’t it?
This life is so hard.
This world can be so unfriendly and cold.
People can be so mean to one another.
We don’t have to look very hard or very long to find people who are walking around, wounded by the world—feeling less than.
That’s one reason why the church is so important.
We are to be different from the world.
We are Christians—imitators of Christ: persons who, through our actions, though the love of Christ living in us--point others to God.
Are we doing this?
In his book, “Soul Graffitti: Making a Life in the Way of Jesus” Mark Scandretti tells the following story.
Seeking to follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors he befriended a homeless man who called himself “The Emperor” while riding on the city bus one night.
The man seemed lonely and looked lost and in need of a friend.
During a conversation with The Emperor he shared that he was a Christian.
Mark writes: “That was the wrong thing to say, for the Emperor grew agitated and went into a complete rage—cursing Jesus’ name.”
This didn’t stop Mark from reaching out to him.
Along with some of his friends, he started visiting the Emperor several times a week, bringing groceries, helping cut his hair or clip his toenails, cleaning up around his camp.
And gradually, the Emperor began to trust Mark’s friendship.
Then one day the Emperor said to Mark: “I’m going to kill myself on New Year’s Eve.”
Mark responded, “I would be really sad if you chose to kill yourself.”
“Why should you care if I live or die?” he asked.
“Emperor, you are valuable to God and to the people who love you. We would miss you.” Mark replied.
To that, the Emperor replied: “Nobody has ever cared about me.”
At Christmas Mark decided to throw a party for the Emperor, including his favorite foods and a birthday cake.
Mark told him that he was going to bring his family along, so he needed to be on his best behavior.
Of that night Mark writes: “There was a full moon on that December evening when I came to the Emperor’s camp.
He was wearing an elegant purple bonnet, with freshly painted fingernails.
A thin young woman, who we knew worked as a prostitute, and lived in a trailer on the street nearby, joined us, along with one of her ‘clients.’
We ate by candlelight serenaded by music from a transistor radio.
The Emperor declared that the food—a collection of his favorite dishes he requested—was delicious.
After dinner my wife Lisa put candles on a cake.
‘Let’s sing happy birthday to someone who hasn’t celebrated their birthday in a while,’ Mark suggested.
‘Who could we sing happy birthday to?’”
Mark continues: “Just then, beaming, our three-year-old son Noah blurted: ‘It’s Christmas, let’s sing Happy Birthday to Jesus!’”
Mark panicked.
He knew, from experience, that the name of Jesus was the worst thing he could imagine mentioning in front of the Emperor, and he waited to see how he would react.
Mark writes: “Slowly, with a big toothless grin, the Emperor said, ‘Yes, let’s sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.”
And so, under a clear and starry night, the eight of them sang together—Lisa and Mark, a streetwalker and her john, a homeless atheist, and three small blond children with red cheeks.
Mark writes: “As I helped the Emperor back into his bus, he turned to me and said, ‘This was the best night of my life. Thank you!’”
What a witness!!!
Like Christmas Trees, we are created to point beyond ourselves.
Remember those singing Christmas Trees?
When they first became popular, I used to have one; its name was Evergreen.
Evergreen sang a song which went like this: “O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, how lovely are my branches.”
That little tree was pretty caught up in itself, and when we become caught up in ourselves…
…leaving God out of the picture…
…that is when disaster knocks at our door, depression sets in and life loses its meaning.
We were created to worship God.
We were created to point Godward—not inward.
In Jeremiah, God talks about trees cut “out of the forest…”
These trees are adorned with “silver and gold.”
But God does not appear to be too happy about this.
“Do not learn the ways of the nations,” God warns.
“For the customs of the peoples are worthless…”
Why does God say such things about these trees?
You guessed it, the trees, which probably did look similar to our modern-day Christmas trees had nothing to do with the birth of the Savior whatsoever.
They didn’t point beyond themselves; they pointed to themselves—even though they could not speak and had to “be carried because they cannot talk.”
They were idols.
The people, whose custom it was to use them did so to worship the pretty tree instead of God.
Jeremiah follows up in the verse in our passage for this morning by proclaiming: “No one is like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power.
They are taught by worthless idols.
But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King.”
(Pause)
A week or so after Christmas, most of us will take down all the ornaments and put them back in their boxes.
If our tree is one of the fake ones, we will take it apart and struggle to get it to fit into its original box and then lug it to the attic where it is all but forgotten until the next year.
We love Christmas trees, but they have their time and place.
For most of us, it would be ridiculous to have a Christmas tree in our living room in, say, July or even February or March.
So, all in all, Christmas trees are a good thing as long as they point beyond themselves—to Christ.
Unless, of course you have a real tree and try to get rid of it by burning it in your fireplace.
My parents did that one time and it didn’t turn out so well.
When we take down our Christmas trees this coming year, lets remember that Christmas is not about the tree.
It’s not about the manger.
It’s not about the star.
And if we are true followers of Jesus, our lives don’t point to Christ just a few months out of the year.
Our lives are to reflect God’s love and glory all year round.
Someone might just go to heaven because of Who our lives point to.
And that makes life worth the living!!!
True happiness is found in nothing else.
On her deathbed a husband said to his wife: “In thy face I have seen the eternal.”
Her life had a Godward reference.
Does your life have a Godward reference?
Is your life pointing others toward Jesus?
Is mine?
Do we make it easier for others to believe in God by how we love others?
Do we remind people of Christ?
Through our loving actions, are we pointing beyond ourselves toward the ONLY ONE Who can save, heal and forgive?
May this be our prayer this year; that we be used to bring others to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ the True and Only God; Who is great and Whose “name is mighty in power.”
Amen.
